Alcoholic beverages, such as vodka, tequila, rum, bourbon, scotch, brandy and the like are generally produced through a distillation process. Once produced, in order to improve the taste and smoothness of the beverage, many products are aged. For instance, bourbons and scotches are typically aged at least three years prior to being sold for consumption. Rums, tequilas and brandies are aged for varying amounts from 2 to 10 years or even more.
In the past, alcoholic distillates, such as bourbon and scotch, for example, have been aged in oak barrels or casks over tong periods of time. The beverages are aged in the wooden containers in order to remove unwanted components and to impart certain colors, flavors and fragrances to enhance the smoothness and taste of the beverage. During the aging process, the distillates can react with components in the wood, such as lignins, tannins, and carbohydrates. Distillation and aging techniques have changed little over the last several hundred years.
Unfortunately, the costs of conventional aging processes are enormous, often accounting for half to two-thirds or even more of the cost of the spirit to consumers. For instance, to ensure product quality, the oak barrels should be stored in warehouses under carefully controlled temperature and humidity conditions for very long periods of time. The barrels are not only very expensive to manufacture but also take up a significant amount of space. Further, much of the alcoholic product can be lost during aging due to evaporation through the pores of the barrels.
In addition, natural barrel aging, though providing the best method to date for enhancing and improving the flavor of spirits, also presents limitations to the chemical reactions which are believed to improve spirit flavor and quality. For instance, oxidation and esterification reactions which are believed to assure spirit smoothness and flavor tend to be inefficient and unable to proceed to completeness at the temperatures which are preferred for limiting loss of product due to evaporation. Thus a balance must be struck with aging processes between increased temperature in order to promote desired chemical reactions and lower temperature desired to limit product evaporation.
Due to the above deficiencies and disadvantages associated with conventional aging processes, those skilled in the art have attempted to devise processes for rapidly aging alcoholic distillates. For example, the use of oak chips and/or oak concentrates is common practice in the industry in attempting to rapidly age alcoholic distillates. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,210,676 to Dudar, et al., which is incorporated herein by reference as to all relevant matter, is directed to a process and apparatus for the acceleration of the ripening of spirits. According to Dudar, et al., distilled spirits are irradiated with ultrasonic radiation in the presence of wood staves. Specifically, the '676 patent teaches applying ultrasonic energy in an amount of 1.7 Watts per liter of alcohol.
Although the prior art has attempted to devise rapid aging processes for distilled spirits, to date no process has gained any real commercial importance. As such, a need exists for a process capable of rapidly aging alcoholic beverages which can not only provide a consumable beverage equivalent to traditionally aged products in taste, aroma, smoothness, color, as well as other characteristics, but can even improve upon these qualities through more complete reaction of the beneficial chemistry involved in the aging process.